Down syndrome - Case Study Example

The life in South Africa circumstances of persons with intellectual disabilities have changed markedly over the last 10 years (Brown, 2004). Now, with de-institutionalization, improved health care and community participation, individuals with disability enjoy extended life in South Africa opportunities in a range of independent settings…

Extract of sample"Down syndrome"

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In these new and emerging independent living circumstances, especially in South Africa, individuals with intellectual disability may face situations which place stresses on them that are similar to those found by Rickwood and d'Espaignet (2005) in a study of other young South Africans. The researchers found that when confronted with the stresses of modern life in South Africa young people turned to their friends. Friends appeared to have a role in assisting young people to cope with the stresses, such as family expectations, employment decisions, and the development of self-identity (Rickwood & d'Espaignet, 2005). Brown, Ball, and Powers (2006) also found this to be the case with young women.
The present study of the socio-emotional behaviors of Down syndrome infants in the Strange Situation was designed to extend this work in two ways. First, whereas most research with Down syndrome infants has focused on their acquisition of critical social and emotional responses, our research is concerned with the quality of certain socio-emotional responses that have already been acquired. This is because the quality of early emotional reactions in social contexts-such as their intensity, liability, range, and temporal characteristics-may reflect more significantly the effects of the Down syndrome child's cognitive and physiological impairments. Second, whereas most research in this area has compared Down syndrome and normal children on discrete assessments of behavior (e.g., age of onset, percentage showing a criterion response), we are also interested in comparing the organization of response characteristics between the two samples (cf. Cicchetti & Serafica, 2000). That is, are the interrelations among response parameters similar for Down syndrome and normal infants, even though specific parameters may differ between the two groups Answers to this question should provide further insight into the organized coherence of early development.

Earlier research with Down syndrome infants and toddlers has shown that these children reach the same developmental milestones as normal children, but at a delayed pace. Thus, in studies of smiling and laughter to social stimuli (Cicchetti & Sroufe, 2005), eye contact during play with mother (Berger & Cunningham, 2000), fear of a visual loom and visual cliff (Cicchetti & Sroufe, 2006), self-recognition of a mirror image (Mans, Cicchetti, & Sroufe, 2006), selected attachment behaviors (Cytryn, 2004; Serafica & Cicchetti, 2005), symbolic play (Hill & McCune-Nicolich, 2000; Motti, Cicchetti, & Sroufe, 2002), indexes of cognitive functioning, and maternal referencing (Sorce, Emde, & Frank, 2001), the sequence of developmental attainments is similar
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